The Morning Star Fades
by justdi
Summary: A/A - Asami and Akihito never met, until years later. What is fate or did someone or something bring them together.
1. Chapter 1

Akihito leaned over the railing, his skinny arms digging into the metal, and watched the tiny ants below go about their routines. His over chewed cigarette butt now flapped into the nothingness below, thrown haphazardly without thought to where it landed.

His nicotine stained nails, once well-groomed and healthy, split and cracked as he chewed on his thumbnail, relishing the tingle of cheap cigarettes that left a bitter yet familiar taste in his mouth.

His mother had one wish, to float with the birds upon her death. Here, above the crowds of people heading towards jobs or home, his mother often spent time, watching the birds mark the sky with their cries, her pale form shivering in the chilling breeze.

"Mom." He choked back her name as the first tears he'd shed since he was a young man, well, younger than now still refused to spill out over his lids. "I know you'll like it up here on Tokyo Tower, you always have." He opened the urn, more cardboard box than urn really, and sniffing the snot back in his nose, dumped the blue-gray ash, watching it join the sky. "I promise I'll continue do my best."

Although sometimes his best left him broke and/or hungry.

Hearing the shuffle of dress shoes on metal, an unwelcomed voyeur during his moment of grief, Akihito intended to give the visitor a glare in warning that their presence was unwanted.

But the glare died when he turned, as his eyes fought to focus, his head dizzy from the height and from the nicotine rush, he thought he heard the dark ominous figure standing there whisper…..

_'__Fear'_

Was the word a manifestation of his subconscious or was it the remainder of a dream he'd had while still wide awake? But the word bounced inside his mind as his heart fluttered, his muscles tensed like a runner ready to jump the starting gun.

The dark ominous figure transformed into only a man's silhouetted form. But few men looked like this. His powerful frame leaned against a pillar and sucked on a long cigarette like it was a woman's nipple. Blocking out the dying sunset, the man in black shuffled towards him, saying nothing. Only two stray hairs on that jet black head moved slightly in the breeze.

Akihito instantly forgot his anger over being caught in a private moment in a public place. The sun's rays faded and blinking to restore his vision, he caught sight of that man's full countenance and felt an instant rush to his groin.

_'__Yes'_

Again he heard a whispered echoed word, but not from that man's mouth. His own thoughts perhaps? The wind swallowed the word taking it on a trip around the world.

For a middle-aged man, his face appeared unlined and unmarred, his black hair unfettered by the warm breeze. Akihito stopped breathing for a moment, then started again as their gazes met and held, a raised eyebrow the only indication the man wasn't a statue. The eyebrow, with its perfection speaking of good grooming twitched, daring Akihito to look away first.

He lost the dare.

"Got another one of those?" Akihito's eyes couldn't help giving the gentleman's gorgeous body a second look, his eyes looking through too large pupils, down those broad shoulders until it reached his hand and the perfect fingers holding a perfectly cylindrical cigarette.

Akihito decided it was a sin to look that beautiful, that perfect. It hurt almost to look at him, knowing that he couldn't keep a man like that close. A guy that beautiful would have dozens of suitors, tempting him to stray. In other words, the man's body language, the silent language of sex and love, whispered _I'm a player _with every puff of his honey tinged cigarette.

"This is my last one, you can have it." He held out the partially smoked cigarette, his fingers caressing it almost lovingly. His voice was smooth, deep and rich, like a buttery sponge cake waiting for a glob of chocolate drizzle to finish it off. Akihito felt the words reverberate through his bones.

With hands that almost gave away Akihito's nervousness, he took the cigarette, brushing the tips of those fingers. The logo on the cigarette was familiar to Akihito: Dunhills, an imported and expensive cigarette. On Akihito's third or fourth inspection, he noticed everything the man wore like a second skin screamed money. Not just said money, screamed it loudly for everyone who noticed to hear. And of course, he took notice too.

"Is this where one comes to let things go?" The man stepped to the left of Akihito and leaned over the railing, toying with a gold ring on his finger. He suddenly pulled it off, and without explanation, dropped it. Akihito watched the man's eyes, so dark and hidden in the shadows as the ring fell. Akihito's mouth dropped along with the ring. "She could never give me what I wanted."

"What _do_ you want?" Akihito puffed the cigarette, admiring the flavor, the richness of it, the subtle taste of the man's lips at the end. Smoking it was like receiving an indirect kiss, if you believed in that myth.

"I didn't know what I wanted until I came up here. But suddenly what I want is standing before me." The man wasn't looking at him at first, but when he finished that cheezy pick up line, he flicked his tongue over his upper lip.

Akihito didn't know whether he should laugh at the intended sarcasm or not. But one look into those gold pupils said it all, as the man's eyes glinted with sincerity and something else…lust?

Something in Akihito's own eyes must have pushed the rich man's buttons because the next thing he did was pull Akihito to him with one powerful hand on his back.

They paused for a moment, eyes locked, pupils wide and feral. The wind, previously unscented was now perfumed with the scent of sweat, cologne and cigarettes as it whipped around them.

"I see from that look that the feeling is mutual. Let's take this somewhere else?" His voice was low, almost a whisper, those lips right as his ear, a devil on his shoulder. His angel, telling him to get away from this man, was a no-show.

He let Akihito go and skated to the elevator. Skated, like a dancer, his shoes making very little noise on the metal walkway. Akihito, still too stunned by the man's touch that burned his sweaty skin, glued himself to the floor, questioning if he should just walk away now.

The man screamed money and power and danger…but also an incredibly good fuck. Some kind of cliché about not wanting to be alone overpowered whatever logic he had left, if he had any to begin with.

"I can have one of my bodyguards bop you on the head and drag you to the limo, see where that takes us." The warning behind that teasing tone made Akihito's breath hitch.

"Back to your cave, homo erectus?" He teased right back, noting the smirk on the man's face become more prominent as they walked, one in front of the other, towards those dirty elevator doors.

The man looked down at his crotch. "Not yet, but shortly."

Akihito had to fight the urge to kiss this man as they rode the elevator in silence. What was that song? _Love in an Elevator_?

_'__Living it up while I'm going down….'_

There was something about that confined space, the man's cologne and cigarette smell, his pheromones reaching out and caressing his cheek that made Akihito's mouth water in anticipation. One glance at the sign which read _video monitoring in process_ kept his hands at his side and his lips to himself.

"Come here often?" The man glanced at him, one perfect eyebrow raised in question. The temperature in the elevator rose to the point Akihito felt a tiny bead of sweat drip down his lower back.

He chuckled at the rich man's use of another cheap pick-up line. "Not really. It was my mother's favorite spot." He lifted the now empty cardboard container in reference to his mother. "Guess I don't need this anymore." He dropped it into the corner, with the trash and the evidence of someone's recent lack of bladder control.

No words of sympathy came from that kissable, pert mouth. "I think you can use a drink." The man ushered him into a waiting limo and promptly handed him a beer, not explaining Akihito's presence to the chauffer or the stiff bodyguard standing at attention. "Imported."

"It's good." The beer went down like water, a pale ale invoking the days of summer, of fireflies, ladybugs and sex under the stars. He gulped the beer down, watching the man's amused face as he sipped an amber colored beverage of his own. Akihito knew just from the smell that the glass contained a very expensive scotch. Its rich heady scent stung his nostrils and made his eyes water.

A button pushed by those graceful yet manly fingers and the partition rolled up quietly, separating the two of them from the men in the front seat. Akihito had barely noticed them, their black suits blended in so well with the black seats and the black car which now sped through Tokyo as the last glint of sunset fell across the land, staining everything a rich orange.

"Come closer." The man gave an order that sounded like he should obey it, so he did although something told him he shouldn't. Maybe it was his last sense of decorum which fled just like his angel, on little winged feet.

As he settled in the seat, Akihito felt the first sense of butterflies in his stomach, telling him he should run like hell. Run until the wind didn't allow him to breathe anymore.

In his younger days, he might have run from such a man, when he was shy, innocent and naïve. He could barely remember those days from the jumble of memories currently invading his brain, of his mother, of his past.

The man cupped his face, perfect hands pulled him closer, his hot breath so near, pausing before Akihito arched into the kiss, welcoming it with a flick of his tongue on the man's lip. Moaning with growing need, the warm tongue slid passed his lips, flicking the tongue in and out. Teeth nibbled his lower lip and Akihito leaned closer, the intensity so great it made his hands clench.

With the sting of whiskey still on the man's tongue, Akihito moaned in the back of his throat liking the wet kiss way too much judging by the tightness in his already tight shorts and the slight tingling in his toes, as if the man's kisses had stolen his breath.

"You had cereal for dinner." The man pulled back, but a hand remained on Akihito's thigh, the ring finger's prominent white line a reminder that he was seducing or being seduced by a married man, at least married on paper.

"It's boring cooking for one."

"Would you like to know my name? Or shall we continue as we are, as two nameless ships." He whispered this time, but the low erotic tone still resounded through Akihito's bones.

"A ship with no name brings bad luck, but since we aren't ships we can dispense with names." No names, no games.

"I see." The nameless man finished his scotch and set the glass down quietly, the hand on Akihito's thigh travelling up and rested, teasing the button on his short shorts. "You enticed me with those short shorts, leaning over the railing like that."

One button came undone.

"Well, the evening turned hot for some reason, too hot for pants." Akihito almost shivered in the heat, those pupils before him drifted from light to dark, caught in a cloak of lust.

"Indeed it has."

His words invoked education, good breeding. Akihito didn't belong in those circles since he had neither. He didn't even know who his father was. His father could be the man sitting next to him, in fact. Could have been any of the older men he'd slept with in the past.

"Well, you could wear rags and I would still find you adorable."

Another button came undone. The heat in the limo mimicked his own heat, the windows steaming, shrouding the world zipping by in a fog, a sea of color blurred together.

The man's eyes bore deeply into his, only blinking when necessary, as if reading not only Akihito's thoughts but claiming his soul too.

"I declare you king of cheezy lines."

"Then melt into me." He whispered. "Like cheap cheese."

Akihito's thighs spread in a perfect 'V' the white shorts no match for his growing bulge. Those tender pecks on his cheeks and neck, a warm firm hand between his legs, his own breathless moans into the man's ear and Akihito forgot about his mother, the men in the front seat, or who this man was. It felt….right.

The man's intensity built, desire sparked those oddly colored eyes and he found himself pulled into the man's lap. "Melt into me." He whispered.

Akihito wondered what he meant and why he said it with such passion but as the man's perfect hands snaked under his t-shirt and pulled him close, he melted.

Nameless man continued to hold his gaze, the wildness in his eyes echoed Akihito's own, as something short of pure need and instinct took over.

With no more words, Akihito's vision tunneled as the man kissed him, slowly, softly at first, his head turning first one way and then another, pulling him closer with each movement. A hand wound around his head, pulling him deeper down until there was no space between them, where Akihito ended the man began.

A hand, his own this time, searched for the knot that held the tie firmly and he yanked at it as the man's hips gyrated, grinding his growing cock into his ass, taking advantage of the bumpy streets.

"Oh….damn…." Akihito breathed into that ear, "you have a huge cock."

"Indeed," came an equally deep and throaty whisper-like voice, "it's more than a mouthful."

The limo jerked to a stop and he slid off the man's lap, buttons fastened quickly, his hard on poking up through his shorts that even a blind man would notice, as did the man.

"Let's hope the prude police have the night off." The man winked and proceeded to hold the door for him, a gesture Akihito found endearing, like a gentleman.

With the words 'night off' the limo pulled away, leaving only the two of them to ride the building's elevator alone, although Akihito could see a few men in black suits milling around.

Before the elevator doors could close a hand was entwined into his hair, and he was pinned to the cold metal wall, the sweat on his back acting as a catalyst for the man's relentless attack.

_'__Lovin' it up til I hit the ground'_

His lips kiss swollen the man treasured his neck, heavy, sweet breaths in between each sucking bite. X marked the spot as his lips melted into teeth, marking him. His mouth opened into a silent moan, eyes drifting closed as the man released his hands and pulled them to his heart.

The music played, a sexy deep beat written for lovers, and they grinded to the beat, pants to shorts, t-shirt to suit, hands entwined, feeling, wanting.

Akihito fisted the man's wrinkled shirt, so warm underneath his fingers. A dewy sweat glowed on their chests, perfuming the air further. Fingers in hair, they pulled at each other, meeting in the space between them now full of lips and teeth and breath.

With thrust like movements, their tongues met, retreated, came together, and tasted the hint of mint and cigarettes. Erotic sounds, coming faster, echoing of those walls, further drove the two on as the elevator climbed, as impatient as they were to reach the top.

Akihito had to push away to breathe. Light-headed, he shook his overgrown black hair out of his eyes, and blinked, noticing the man watched his every move.

"Do you want to know my name now, so when I take you to the edge, you can scream it when you come?" The man's voice, purring and erotic, his hands caressing his back, one finger tracing the waist of his shorts and Akihito sighed, never wanting anyone more.

"Your name will be _oh god oh god_ if this is any indication of what's in store for me." With eyes trained on the man, he brushed his fingers over that already hard package, hearing a light groan in his ears. It twitched underneath his eager fingers, anticipating being buried into Akihito's tight heat.

"My ego doesn't require stroking. But something else does." A grind of two hardened bodies, the friction too much and not enough, a moan, and then two as his own voice reverberated back to him.

"Last chance." The man whispered, his voice sounded like bells tempting him with that magic voice. "You can still walk away."

With a quiet _ding_ and a jolt, their ride came to a stop. He felt like he'd fall if he wasn't pinned in the man's embrace.

His hand now pulled, beckoning him, enticing him, daring him to follow. "This way."

He took the dare, the man leading him into a condo that looked more hotel room than condo. A sterile, neat and lonely looking set of rooms.

"I'm a little impatient, so I'm afraid the grand tour and tea is out." The man lifted him up bridal style, with Akihito trying to hide the holes in his stockings which he'd mended a few times before giving up.

"Woah….hey…." Held in the man's arms, he clutched his neck, watching the sweat bead down that curve of neck. The bedroom beckoned, seeming a long way off and not enough time, as he read the face of this man, so closed off, but intent on feeding his own arousal, as he carefully laid him down on the bed.

The bed cradles his body in warmth, in the man's scent. Nothing was said of safe sex, but a slight tilt of the head, and the man produced what was expected, anticipating the question in his eyes.

The red tie came off, wound around his fists, and with a whip-like _snap _the man smirked before throwing the tie over a chair. Akihito's knee popped up, showing a bit of thigh and a peek of the family jewels. The man looked through his lashes, an appreciative grin forming on his face.

Each black button on his perfect white shirt popped from the force of his broad chest, like he wore a size to small just to show off his sculpted pecs.

Akihito eyes shined with delight, his cock growing with fantasies of being taken, of being driven to the edge, over the edge…the edge of freshly sharpened knife.

Peeking through those silk boxers, following that curve of sculpted muscle, the man's cock twitched again under Akihito's scrutiny, saying hello.

With almost a timidity he hadn't felt in a while, he looked away, then back, eyeing the huge cock held captive with a wiggle of his hips, the man's boxers slid down and the cock sprang free, hitting the man's stomach. Akihito, who couldn't keep from stroking the man's ego, whistled in delight.

"Wow….that's some body."

The man chuckled, climbing over him and fitting himself into the space at Akihito's side, a knee between his legs.

Akihito swallowed hard, suddenly nervous, as a cold bead of sweat ran down his neck, he felt like running, to escape those dangerous yet surprisingly gentle hands.

The goose bumps following behind each tender caress, his head fell back with a sigh, and Akihito let a loud moan escape his lips as a hand brushed his crotch, caging his swollen cock in his shorts.

"Clothing. Off. Now." The words came out clipped and short, a military-like command.

He did as he was told, avoiding the man's gaze as it trailed over his now naked body. His hands twisted, pinned by only one of the man's hands, preventing any futile struggling.

The man uttered a grunt-like noise in appreciation of his body. "Someone was hiding a nice hard package." The man teased his cock with one fingertip, before the soft hand glided up and around his torso, settling on his right nipple.

"Do you enjoy it here?" He teased the right nipple massaging it with his whole hand before tweaking it between two fingers. His hips wiggling, Akihito felt needy, his ass twitching, anticipating the ride of his life. Lips descended onto his nipples, wavering between sucking and blowing and his nipples grew hard, pointed and almost ached.

"Mnnnh." He said in answer, when in fact he meant _'hell yes.' _His voice too choked from the dry air and the warm room his eyes shuttered closed again, to keep himself in the moment, rather than face the man's heated gaze.

"What happened here?" Two fingers teased a round scar, a cigarette burn from a nasty person.

"An asshole, that's what happened."

"This asshole marked you, shall I erase it?" The two fingers went away, replaced with the man's skilled pink tongue, licking the wound as if his saliva could cure it.

"Ahh….." His head flew back, hair flying and he managed the words, "And I marked him, with a kick to the balls. I think he sings soprano now."

A hearty laugh from the man and startled by the sound of it, Akihito smiled and blushed. He hadn't blushed in years.

"Did my laughter make you blush? You're cute, and even more so when you blush." The man resumed mapping his body, the curve of his ass, the crook of his knee, and Akihito opened his eyes, following the man's hands as he studied his face, reading his reactions to his touch. An unspoken _do you feel good_ on the man's lips had Akihito sighing into the blankets, writhing, arching into his touch.

He wanted to argue that he didn't feel cute, but this man's hands and mouth felt so damned right, he decided not to argue.

"I'm taking it slow." At some point, Akihito didn't know when, he felt a cold wet on his body, strawberry lube from the smell of it. Akihito could feel the man's hard cock wet and slick against his thigh. His breath came in small hitches, speeding up as his slick hand went lower and lower until it circled around his hole.

"Please." He begged softly, "I want to touch you."

Akihito rubbed at the red marks covering his wrists, the sheer power behind those hands and the intensity of his gaze made Akihito wonder if he should make a run for it.

Hearing his thoughts the man wasted no time in answering his unspoken words, "And will you run away?" The man reluctantly released his grip, giving him a warning glare, daring him to run.

"I can't run like this." He pointed to his hard cock, now leaking pre-cum, just from a little kissing and fondling, like some horny teenager and not a man pushing thirty, give or take a few years.

Akihito's hands, shakily at first, traced the muscles of that sculpted waist, feeling the heat burn into his palms. The dew-like sweat, now covering the man's body, cooled the heated skin only slightly, allowing Akihito to glide across that curve and down lower. With one look towards the man's face, almost for permission, yet not, he brushed his fingers over the man's cock.

Eyes fluttered closed, a grind of hips, and Akihito tightened his grip,

"Tell me your name, so if you run I can track you down." He stroked Akihito's cock, teasing the slit before returning to stroking it, the lube making wet slick sounds, building Akihito's desire.

"Call me whatever you want." Akihito's eyes flipped from the man's hard leaking package back to the man's eyes, so blown with desire and need.

"What are you thinking in that dirty mind of yours?" The man read his mind like he knew him, like he understood and agreed with what he needed.

"Let me suck it."

"Do what you want." Instead of laying back and letting Akihito mount him, he moved over him, 69 position, his cock descended until it was right at his mouth, and he licked it tentatively, feeling his body tremble in anticipation as he felt this man's hot breath on his own cock. The hair on his legs seemed to stand up the man's fingers teased his ass. He licked his lips, his eyes filling with water as his cock was taken into that expert mouth.

He spread his legs wide, trying to concentrate on licking the huge cock above him, although his crotch was on fire and at the same time, wet with slickness.

The man caressed his thigh then with a heavy grip, fisted the base of his cock until he groaned and his body shook. A strange jolt contorted his body as the man pressed a digit into his ass, deep throating his cock at the same time.

He moaned around the cock in his mouth, the man letting out a quiet moan of his own. He sped up alternating between his hands and his mouth, feeling another finger join the other. He could feel the man's hot breath now, as it wafted across his cock. His legs became taut with excitement.

He rested both of his hands on the man's hips, urging him to fuck his mouth. His heart raced, his lungs began to ache, reminding him to breathe as the man's hips moved on their own, gyrating into his mouth.

His lips slowly moved along the cock, then pulled back, the tension building up in his body as once more the man moved his head forward. Once more his lips surrounded his cock, while his balls rolled around in the man's hand.

As Akihito's lips slid down and off his cock to grab hold of his shaft with his hand, his tongue darted out, tasting the small drop of pre-cum that had formed. His lips moved down the shaft, and gagging a little he tried to stuff as much as he could in his mouth.

The man moaned and bucked, his cock swelled. A third finger plunged into Akihito's hole, which he couldn't even feel, the pleasure on his cock so great he wouldn't mind dying right now.

He moaned as he felt the tongue bathing him, tasting, sending jolts of pleasure up and down his groin and into his legs. His hands stretched and contracted, pulling at the man's hips. He groaned, waves of pleasure running up and down his whole body. His muscles taut with anticipation, he managed to find his voice.

"So close, wait…please."

"Beg again." The man's reverberation made his cock twitch.

Something jolted in his brain in his fog of lust about the man being a sadist and he should get out of here before the whips and chains come out, but he felt too good to make his legs function.

"Please…take me."

The man ignored his moans as his fingers crooked and brushed against his pleasure spot. He saw stars.

"Oohhh…dammit….please…take me." He said a little louder.

He slowly moved his own hips in time with the motion of the man's bobbing head. He continued to alternate between moans and begging, as a strong wave of pleasure rolled and he gasped. Biting his lip and arching into the man's mouth.

"I'm…oh….shit." He shouted, crying as the orgasm took control and he writhed, clutching the sheets and rolling his head in the mattress. He head swam with pleasure as his spunk disappeared into the man's mouth and was swallowed.

His cock flopped onto his thighs spent and happy as he panted shallowly, feeling his heartbeat into his teeth.

"I thought my name was _oh god _not _oh shit." _The man had a twinkle of humor in his eyes that Akihito hadn't seen before. He could fall for such a man, fall hard and die in his arms.

"Huh….sorry, I couldn't get my brain functioning." The man pushed his thighs apart, and he started to feel again after that mind-blowing orgasm, his ass tingled from the finger fucking he received, but the night was far from over.

"Mmmmm...I'll blow that mind away." The man whispered in his ear, pushing into his well-prepared but still tight ass. The unmistakable scent of latex filled the air as the man snapped his hips, burying himself deep into Akihito's heat.

"Ohh….damn….you're big…" He panted and moaned in between his barely audible words.

"Relax." He ordered.

"Trying."

"You're body entices me." The man's voice was low and so erotic, his ears perked. "Relax….relax." With each word, Akihito melted further, his cock starting to wake-up again, as the man rubbed his spot with the head of his cock. "Do you like to tease older men with those short shorts?"

"Ahh…no…" He whispered. The man plunged in to the hilt, Akihito's head flew back and with a silent cry, his hips met those very first thrusts.

"Teasing me, your eyes running all over my body. You wanted me."

"Yes…please….deeper." The man thrusted hard, spikes of burning pain running up and down Akihito's groin, which quickly went away as the man clutched his cock and stroked it. His legs spread on their own, his hands wrapped into the sheets as the feeling built. "Please…." He begged again, not knowing what he wanted…for the man to pull out, for the man to speed up, for the man to bury himself so deep he could never find his way out.

He could want a man like this, such a perfect man, forever.

He watched that pleasure contorted face through his lashes, the sweat beading down his face and dripping onto Akihito's stomach. He watched as the man smirked when he discovered Akihito eyes on him.

Breathing hard, the man paused and then rotated his hips in a circle, grinding against his ass cheeks, burying himself to the hilt. "You like what you see?"

"Yes." He moaned, barely comprehending what the man had said. "Beautiful." The man sped up, pounding hard, then pulled out almost all the way making short thrusts where only the head of his cock breached his ass. The cock throbbed, swelled, and the man thrusted hard and Akihito braced himself, wishing he could feel the cum coat the inside of his ass. That face, that handsome face, became so erotic when he came that Akihito had to close his eyes, as his own pleasure built as he stroked himself. A few beats of his tight fist and Akihito came again, shouting with the sheer intensity of it.

A heartbeat, then two, and in Akihito's dazed like post-coitus mind he realized it wasn't his heartbeat that he felt but this man's. This unknown man lay next to him and pulled him close, his body fitting with the confines of his open arms. Never in a million years would he imagine a man like that would want to cuddle, but he said nothing, breathing in the scent of their connection, now stronger, almost pungent.

He didn't know how long he laid there, listening to the man's even breathing and thudding heartbeat, but at some point, he must have fallen asleep because when he woke, the clock on the wall read 3 a.m. and the man was in his chair, smoking a cigarette.

"You got one of those for me?" Akihito asked the figure sitting in the dark, hoping it was the man, he couldn't tell.

"Sure." The small lamp illuminated the room and the man in the black satin robe flicked a second cigarette in his own mouth and lit it before handing it to him. It was sexiest thing he'd ever seen in his life, that little gesture reminded him of the America's movies of the 1950s, of starlets in hip hugging dresses, of men in suits and hats and coats, of cops and criminals, of liquor and guns. That golden age….when men were rugged and women were bombshells.

He puffed, watching the smoke rise up to the probably defunct smoke detector, wondering how he should make his exit since the trains weren't running and he was too proud to ask for cab fare. His last ten yen he spent on cigarettes which dampened his appetite, making food unnecessary.

"So tell me your tale of woe." The man stubbed out his cigarette, and, still naked climbed back in the bed again and pulled Akihito until his head rested on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry? What tale of woe?"

"The socks, the fact you're too skinny, your lack of yen in your shorts or in your wallet, Takaba Akihito, parking lot attendant." The man threw his empty wallet onto his chest. He only had two things in there, his job card and his I.D. He didn't even need a wallet really.

"You went through my wallet? You bastard!" He elbowed the man in the ribs, which only brought a chuckle to the man's lips and made his elbow sore.

"It doesn't matter, my men would have found out who you were anyway, I just made their job a little easier. So, your tale of woe? Or is your life story going to be a major motion picture and I have to wait until it comes out on DVD."

"Like anyone would be interested in my story….a photographer dreams that died just to save his mother's life….some hero….she died anyway." He said it with a tinge of drama, of bitterness, of the reality of his situation. "I threw it all away to save her."

"Hmmn….what did you throw away?"

"Well, not thrown…sold…. my camera equipment, and after that….my body." He sighed, waiting for the pity or the anger that was sure to come. Perhaps the man would throw him out now, knowing he, at one time, was a common street whore.

"Not anymore?"

"Not anymore, I'd rather starve….anyway…I'd better go, I have to work tomorrow." He rose up on his elbows, sucked the cigarette and stabbed it out in the ashtray. "Thanks for the nice evening."

Before he could get up, he found himself yanked into the man's arms again. "Ask me my name, Takaba Akihito and I'll tell you."

"Umm…okay, what's your name?"

"I'm one of many, the evil one, the power of darkness, Lucifer, The Morning Star, Beelzebub, Satan. But you can just call me the Devil. Nice to meet you." The man's eyes wrinkled, the pupil dilated to slits, looking cat-like in the shadows of the room.

He had to be dreaming, he had to be. The corners of Akihito's mouth crinkled into a smile, and his eyes watered in silent laughter. "The devil is a middle aged beautiful man that lives in a condo by himself and smokes imported cigarettes, drinks imported whiskey, and wears custom clothing by Gucci. Forgive me if I find that hard to swallow."

"Then what is this, Takaba Akihito, where is your cigarette scar?" The voice started to hiss, the deep timber gone replaced by multiple voices, all talking at once.

Akihito looked, rubbing his body, searching for the scar that always stared at him in the mirror, reminding him that people weren't always as they seemed. The scar was gone. "How did you…."

The man opened a large wooden box containing cameras. Not just any cameras, they looked like his cameras he sold so long ago.

"And these? Do they look familiar?"

"Those could be anyone's cameras."

"Oh? What's this then, some kind of forgery?" Akihito's eyes widened when the man in black underwear turned over the camera and pointed to the symbol etched there: his initials and his ID number. Both as clear as the day he put them there.

He reached out but the lid on the wooden box snapped closed and the man waved a finger at him.

"Uh uh uh….no touchy. I want something in return, do you think I will get it?"

Akihito's finally stopped staring at the box and met the man's eyes, which flickered now, from black to gold and back again. He hadn't noticed it before. A long pause, as the man eyed him, his eyes unblinking, while Akihito couldn't keep his eyes open. A voice echoed in his head, fighting his subconscious, telling him to believe what his eyes refused to acknowledge. The eyes of the man turned wild glowing in the faint light and when the man smiled, showing pointed dagger like teeth, Akihito shuddered and pulled back.

"What are you?" He asked when he could get his mouth moving. He clutched at the sheets, wanting to cover himself as this demon/man eyed him with a mixture of hunger and lust. No, not lust….just hunger.

"Simple question….but complicated answer. I just want a soul. It could be anyone's, but I want yours."

"My soul?"

"This man I inhabit, his name is Asami Ryuuichi by the way, he's a rich man, powerful, controls the underworld in Tokyo. All that, fame, looks…do you know what he wanted in exchange for his soul?"

"What's that? Immortality?"

"No, he wants love. Stupid right?"

"Love?" He shrugged. "You have his soul, what do you want with me?"

"There it is, intact." He peered into Akihito's eyes again, the gold pupils flashed red, then blue then black and back to gold. Which ones were the man's eyes? "Your soul…..for the cameras."

Akihito twisted his bottom lip with his teeth. "What if I just walk away?"

Multiple voices chuckled. "Don't fool yourself, we all know what your choice will be. I'm kind of…..clairvoyant that way. I don't pick humans on a whim. Your life back…the cameras, your livelihood. I'll even….throw in some jobs just to get your started. You likey, sweetin' the deal for ya." The devil cackled, twisting the box in his hands, daring him to reach out and take it, his voice echoing with multiple accents.

For the second time tonight, Akihito took the dare. "I want it all back, including my mother."

"Someone just made a deal with the devil."


	2. Chapter 2

When the thin gauzy veil of twilight sleep finally left Asami Ryuuichi and he became aware of his own breathing, he assumed he was alone – except, he could sense the presence of something else in the room. Yes…something, with this something smelling like freshly dug earth and a sour fragrance that stayed on his tongue, making the saliva catch in his throat.

The bed he had shared with the beautiful, yet tragic young man the night before had long grown cold, yet the sticky lust they shared lingered in the freezing room, too cold for summer, too cold for his taste.

He exhaled out of his mouth – half expecting to see his breath, as if it was icy December morning and he was sharing a frozen pond with this warm, beautiful boy.

_"__My name is Takaba Akihito – yeah, don't ask – but most people call me Aki." Beautiful boy said as he spun in a tight circle and finished with a flourish. His innocent, yet desirable scent overpowered the moisture in the air and Asami inhaled deeply, desire dripping from his lips like rabid hunger. _

_It was a sin to want someone this badly – no matter what gender – no matter what age._

_The desire built in him, overpowering his sense of reason. _

_And he knew then when he said the next words, that someday he would own the beautiful boy. "Why should I call you Aki like most people – my adorable one – why should I call you anything but mine?"_

_Aki's breath came out ragged then, uneven and tempered with the first drops of tension and the sudden urge to freeze like a prey caught in the scent of a deadly predator. And he had been that predator. _

_The boy blushed and looked him up and down. "But I'm a boy!" He had said and skated away as Asami's eyes blinked with pure white snow caught on coal black eyelashes. _

_He let the boy go, regretfully. _

_And he had dreamt of the boy ever since._

"Nice flashback?" A voice he didn't recognize said and Asami reached for the gun that should be there, knowing fully it would not serve him as it should.

"That's not my memory." He could still smell the ice and the sweet scent of a child's sour candy, as powerful as any memory could be.

There again, a faded shadow – just out of reach and blurred by his own dwindling vision and the paper-thin shoji screen that decorated one corner, the form seemed to waver back and forth on its legs as if unsteady or drunk or both.

"Perhaps it could be."

"Who are you?" He finally said out loud and blinked when the form behind the screen wobbled slightly to the left and back again.

Silence that wasn't silence made his ears pop.

"Who are you?" He said again a little louder – rattling his ears - just to be sure he wasn't dreaming.

"Many….many…so many...names." The voice became louder, clearer, like the bell on a little child's bike as it rides in front of your house. "The names of those long devoured and some newly swallowed."

The man revealed himself, and Asami blinked many times before what stood before him registered. This adorably beautiful man still clothed in tight white shorts and still as adorable as last night stood before him, so pale and thin he looked unreal. He blinked again, gazing into those dark eyes that glowed black, as if the man he fucked last night no longer had vision. Asami felt again for his weapon, not realizing he was shirtless and the weapon far out of reach.

"A legion of many?" He finally said to those two dark circles.

The odd boy gave a throaty, milky chuckle and clicked his nails together. "So schooled in the superstitions of men…..and yet so far from the truth, beauty." The boy spoke without moving his face, only his lips moved, only that pale throat swallowed something thick and gooey. "Is that an answer to your question, Asami Ryuuichi…the bearer of all thoughts unholy?"

"Schooled, yes." He said, his voice catching in his tingling glands. He felt the grief pool in the hollow of his throat, as if he'd swallowed a very bitter pill. "Unholy, no."

"The unholy one that believes in nothing?" The voice became even clearer – sounding tinny, like an AM radio in the chill night air. "And…no, you're not dreaming."

"I say I am. Are you one to argue with me?"

"It's still night, just to clarify, so if you want this to be a dream or a memory or…the truth then…" The charming man snarled, his lip curling and dripping with some kind of brown goo. "It's up to you, dreamer. I don't argue with vermin."

Asami wanted to say something about that, but his tongue swelled as the first scent of sweet chocolate filling his nostrils. It reminded him of an event he couldn't quite place.

"Can I tempt you with sweets, my sweetness?" The devil read the ripped candy wrapper clutched between his pale chocolate covered fingers. "Rich, dark chocolate….almost sinful in its purity."

"I'm not fond of sweets." He spoke loud and low, his voice as low as it could go, as if it was a magic spell and could banish the sin as well as the sinner. "You'd best be going, I think."

"I will leave…when I'm done here." He said menacingly, and Asami felt his stomach lurch as he fought the instinct to run as this beautiful, bewitching boy with the body of a virgin and the instincts of an animal came closer. "Rich, and sinful chocolate paid for with money that's stamped with….._In God We Trust. _I find that ironic." The gold wrapper fluttered to the ground, wobbling on an unseen air current that shouldn't be there.

The boy turned back towards the small windows that formed a 90° angle. Asami's darkened room sizzled with static as the boy cackled loudly at Asami's palatable fear.

The hairs pricked on the back of Asami's neck, a bitter reminder of the ghost living in his grandmother's house that would place a cold hand over his as he bowed in her commanding presence.

_His grandmother had been right. The devil likes to hover in the corners._

He stuttered and gulped, instantly aware of some animalistic arousal in the room. "I'm still dreaming, despite what you say." Asami's neck kinked with stiffness and his head joined in the pain, building behind the eyes first, then sharp stick-like pain stabbing him in the temple and ears. He stifled a groan.

"Are you afraid of me?" The odd tinny accented voice was gone – replaced by a young man's voice that wavered from heavily accented and back to something more recognizable as he spoke.

"Are you something I should fear?"

"Well then….Asami Ryuuichi if I tell you yes….then will you run?" The man looked young enough to still be in high school but old enough to know of things unseen and things unnamed. The unmarked, genderless face smiled in Asami's direction, the teeth white and straight in their relative perfection. "Actually the time for running is long past."

"I see."

"Do you? I doubt that."

His panic momentarily tempered with some deep even breathing he gathered his next words, "You have chocolate on your lip." He said and reached to wipe it away but froze with his hand still in the air, hovering over the boy's angel-like face. "And….you're younger than I thought."

"I am ageless, does that make you uncomfortable?" He licked his lips and fondled the boy's package sticking through his shorts and stared sexily in Asami's direction.

"Are you teasing me – Takaba Akihito….Parking Lot Attendant?" Asami stood up, his pants falling around his ankles although he was never aware of unbuckling them.

The boy grinned with desire as if bombs were exploding in those dark eyes. Asami instantly knew what drowning felt like as he watched the boy come two steps closer.

"If this is the good part of the dream….keep it up…." and then he added, "boy."

"Ahhh…I see…we've gone through….fear…doubt…denial…and then…er….acceptance? You're easy…." And then he added, "….daddy."

"Where is your scar?" He stretched again, feeling the carpet beneath his feet, watching his own steps drill into the carpet.

"Oh? The body I borrowed – he's what you call in my employ. I detest imperfection, how do I explain it….the demon in me…we are a vain lot." The boy moved away from him, his feet leaving no marks behind him.

"Imperfection breeds change."

"Let me make this clearer." He flicked his fingernails over the boy's naked chest. "What is it you desire…from me….right now…uh….er…at this moment?"

Asami felt his cock swell, the desire in the room thick and rich. "At this moment, nothing." He said as loudly as he dared. "What do you want with the boy?"

"Symbiosis is your human word for it, but as I see it, this boy and I, he's the plover to my crocodile." The devil boy grinned, more chocolate goo dripped from perfect white teeth although he hadn't seen him put anything in his mouth. "It's only temporary."

"And when you finally crunch him between your jaws?" His fear mounted as he challenged further, his pulse quickening, skipping and then relaxing as he let his primal instincts take over.

"Why do you care?" The devil challenged loudly. His fingernails raked the perfect skin and made equally sharp dark red lines which dripped three perfectly formed red drops that decorated his bare chest. It looked like jewels, so sinful, so unholy, so unreal. "He certainly doesn't."

Asami's eyes narrowed as those words flowed through those pink lips that he'd devoured the night before. "Indulge me – I'm curious." No, he was terrified...curious and terrified, maybe for the first time in his life.

"Curiosity….gasped the human as I bit off his head, and then he said no more."

"Curiosity." He challenged back, feeling the heat beneath his toes as the devil boy came closer.

"Takaba is an easy mark – a desperate soul, rather tasty from a certain point of view…and from where I am – inside – his soul still burns bright….you know…the world hasn't chewed him up yet." The demon spat brown goo, smiling as it dripped down Asami's perfectly white walls. "He's a foolish man-boy…isn't he…daddy, to not know a good thing?"

"Desperation makes fools out of all of us." He quipped, ignoring the daddy remark, as a bead of sweat fell down his face. He reached to wipe it away as those shiny perfectly shaped soulless eyes caught his, two eyelids blinking slowly one at a time and then rising, the irises under the black eyes swirling with multiple irises of despair.

"And what are you desperate for then?" The devil peeked outside as his teeth glowed in the light reflected by the flickering lamp outside his window before disappearing beneath rosy pink human lips. "Right now…er…at this moment."

He had expected a forked tongue, fangs and blood dripping from the creature's mouth, his imagination obviously tainted by years of casual reading and periodic B-movie horror movie watching.

What he wasn't prepared for was the devil's inner glow which reflected off the window, making him wonder if the devil hadn't fallen as far as the legends say.

Asami's breath caught at the vision as the air grew staler, smelling like his empty skiing lodge during the lonely hot summer.

He choked back a sob and kept thinking about snow while he watched the devil's eyes glimmer and reflect his own. He couldn't remember loving the cold, but that's what he wanted, to feel the cold around him as his body heated to the point of combustion.

He could understand spontaneous combustion now - he could scream with those piles of ashes, the people devoured in the devil's jaws during that one brief moment as he walked the earth unchallenged.

And someday he would feel the demon reach into his body, snatch his soul and devour it whole while he watched unblinking, the soul's fiery heat dripping finally down the devil's already full gullet.

"The boy's soul, in exchange for mine." He said finally.

"And that's it...no power, riches...or anything?"

"I don't need the devil's power for that." Asami said, trying to overpower the fear making his heart thud loudly in his ears.

"Curiouser and curiouser….."

"Now who knows the teachings of men?"

"Alice and I…..we are one and the same, potion-bearer." Devil boy said archaically, his voice sounding like a perfect proper London accent. With cat like movements, the motion blurred as long pale fingers came out and clutched Asami's chin as the power radiated down his pinned arms.

He had expected the devil's claws. "A challenge from the devil himself perhaps?"

He recoiled at the claws clutching his face, feeling each nail dig into his skin. The pads of his own fingers felt heavy as the devil touched him with longing. The scream at the back of his throat formed as the fingertips dug deeper, raking across his five-o-clock shadow before tickling the tiny hairs inside his ear. The wail that wavered within him he swallowed instead as he took a deep breath, feeling the rank odor fill his nostrils. He coughed and the devil grinned with his eyebrows.

"I said…what are you desperate for – Asami Ryuuichi, the man between the devil and his right hand?" The devil's eyebrows lowered, one at a time, as if he had little control over them.

Asami looked towards the nearest escape – although none presented itself. Even the phone on the stand looked otherworldly, its key-pad blinking like a stop-light. When a shadow fell across him like a thief's hand in the night, he felt the scream almost escape his mouth as wings darkened the nearest doorway, absorbing the light around it, absorbing his scream with it.

"What do you fear? Death?" The wings transformed into vague shadows of the objects around the boy, ordinary things….a chair, a clock, a vase, a painting.

"Not the kind you're thinking of." He sounded hoarse, his breath stolen from him and given to starving children.

"Not the kind….not the kind….there is not any kind….it's just death." A cackle and then another came faster and faster, sounding like multiple voices talking over each other. Which one was the boy's?

"You seem awfully into the feelings of men for a devil, don't tell me you're curious about the workings of the human heart – after all this time." He spat.

"Time means nothing – I'm just after easy pickings. Pick this – Asami Ryuuichi – take the card I have offered." He held out a shiny black and gold card, its edges rimmed with shiny glitter like gems.

_The devil lives in the angles of cards._

"A game? At this hour?" He realized he wasn't in his right mind as he reached for the cards the devil himself was offering.

"Game? There is no game, only my challenge."

"And if I can best you?" He waited a moment, waiting for the jaws or the claws to strike. "At this challenge?"

"Despite what you've been told, I've never met my match."

"You've got my request." Asami asked, watching two soulless eyes stare back at him. "How about dancing with me, just to seal the deal?" He touched a few buttons, finding the song that seemed to fit his mood.

The most romantic song he'd ever heard.

The boy peered oddly as if trying to figure out where the sound was coming from, like a dog hearing a siren in the distance, his head cocking left and right.

A soft slow violin intro tested the silence from one side of Asami's bedroom and built, adding riffs until finally a haunting chilling melody carried throughout and drifted as if floating on an unseen draft. A crescendo formed from out of nowhere, sounding tinny and hollow in Asami's ears.

In other words, as perfect as the day it was recorded.

_At….last…._

A woman's tortured haunting voice came over the loudspeakers singing those first two words so clearly, he was sure Miss Etta was in the room with him. So bold her singing, the devil himself could be smitten with her silky voice.

The devil sighed and winked at him and reached for his outstretched hand. "I'm assuming you wish to best me at dancing?" The devil boy spoke clearly. "Is that your challenge?"

"A dance with the devil, sure...a deal...and….then a hasty exit." He grasped the devil to him, his hard on evidently as painful as he first thought. "If you can keep up with me, that is. I'm assuming...you are light on your feet?"

"And my terms...since we are being clear here." The demon boy said, extending the hand that had remained unnoticed. "You lead."

Asami's eyes watched that pale hand waver and then glide to his hip. "I like dancing...I'm a dancing fool...as, I think...you are too?"

"I'm foolish for lots of reasons, but dancing isn't one of them." The boy smirked back. "I accept your challenge, but this is a first."

_I found a dream that I could speak to_

_A dream that I could call my own_

_I found a thrill…to press my cheek to._

"You've never danced before?" Asami asked, watching as something passed across the boy's face.

"Not with God's likeness, such as yourself." The devil whispered.

"And yet you took a vermin's hand, demon." He said with a sneer in his voice, although he knew he was tempting the fate of the devil's ire.

"You're a feisty one – I can see why this little boy was drawn to you." The devil smiled a forced smile, which made the boy's mouth to curve unnaturally.

_A thrill that I have never known_

_Oh, yeah when you smile, you smile_

_Oh, and then the spell was cast_

"Was that your doing too? Or did you just watch?" His mouth was right at the devil's boy's ears, distracting him with his lustful scent and his feather light touch. Asami chuckled in his throat when the devil clutched him closer.

"Do you watch dogs fucking?" The boy pulled back, giving him a practiced smile, a funny smile, charming to look at, tempting to hold, but if you break it….c_onsider it sold. _He heard someone whisper.

"No." He said and then decided the boy didn't hear it because he was humming. "No." He said louder.

"There is your answer." The boy went on humming, not quite the tune that was playing, but something close to the humming of an old diesel engine.

Asami led. He would not let the devil lead, not in a million years. "So…what was it that made you fall so far from the light of the world?"

"I never fell…..I flew." The devil stumbled, suddenly as Mis Etta crooned, proudly and loudly. "I think I've forgotten...er...why, though."

_And life is like a song….._

He spun the devil into the middle of the room, guided him out of his comfort zone - the corners, the shadows, the hidden places of men's minds. He spun again, Asami's head dizzy with ultimatums, loneliness and sin and led his dancing partner right under the light hanging in the middle of the room. He hid the smirk that grew larger as the devil stumbled over his unfamiliar human like feet.

"Is my soul as tempting as his?" Asami leaned the boy over, his right arm clutching that small waist, and hovered over him. The boy's eyes swirled with light and dark, tempting him to gaze into them, to fall far into their dark and colorless pit.

"They are all much the same."

"And why is that?" The music flourished, and he did to, pulling the demon with him who didn't seem to follow like he should. Nothing was like it should be.

And nothing would ever be the same again.

"Your power shines, so much so you attract the attention of the desperate….Asami-sama." He sounded like his former bodyguard, the one who took a bullet for him and died in his arms so long ago. "They want to have you wrap your arms or your money around them and absorb your power."

"I wouldn't ask that of anyone and I hope they wouldn't ask that of me." The music rolled into his ears, feeling Etta's powerful voice that beautifully human voice challenge whatever lies the devil could throw his way.

"Do you want to know what he…er….the boy desired?" The devil clung harder, his pelvis rubbing against Asami's dress slacks, the hardness of Akihito's cock evident against his own.

"That's his business….my business..."

"Your power…you mean."

"My business…is my own."

He spun the body around in a circle as Etta crooned on. He forgot the words so he just hummed as well as he kept the devil from falling further. "You're stumbling demon, don't tell me they don't dance in Hell."

"Not the kind you're thinking of."

_The minute the spell was cast._

_And here we are in heaven._

_For you are mine…._

_At last._

He spun the devil in time to the music feeling the boy quiver underneath. "Have I won then…cursed one?"

The devil sighed into his shirt, not even trying to keep time. "I suppose."

"Release the boy, he was never yours to play with." He ordered. "He was never yours….to begin with."

"Well, he's not yours either….but I might as well say it….someone just made a deal with the devil." A loud cackle pierced the air and wobbled the air around it. He heard a baby cry and realized it was his own voice wrenched from his lungs as the devil marked his soul as his.

Asami stood, his hands shaking, although his arms were still around the boy's embrace. The boy's body collapsed in his arms, like someone had cut the puppet's master's strings. He felt like collapsing to, under the weight of what he had just given away.

Of what he had just done and why.

"You may have saved the boy's soul," A voice called over the wind, "but you can't make him love you."

"I'll take that as a challenge." He quipped back, watching the boy age with each breath until he was a man again with a five o-clock shadow, holey socks and an empty wallet.

He felt the body against him inhale and exhale with a sigh. The adorable boy in his false ice skating memory evident on that still angelic face, the round cigarette scar on that soft chest the only imperfection he could find. The only one that mattered.

The devil didn't remark. His voice long silent as the sun breeched the corner window, the room filling with a light Asami knew had to be natural, as it filled the room, chasing the dark demons from the corners.

"I will make you mine, my beautiful Akihito." He whispered into those unhearing ears loving how the name _Akihito_ rolled off his tongue. "I think I'm owed at least that."

And Etta said something that he knew then would someday come true, that is, if he had his way.

_...for you will be mine….._

_…__..at last._


End file.
